The good—the very good—energy news is that the Indian Point nuclear power plants 26 miles north of New York City will be closed in the next few years under an agreement reached between New York State and the plants’ owner, Entergy. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has long been calling for the plants to be […]

Talen Energy, the company that owns the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Pennsylvania, has informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that it sees no “viable path” forward and is abandoning its application to construct a new nuclear power plant next to the Susquehanna facility. On October 10th, 2008, the NRC received an application that proposed […]

This week TEPCO officials at a meeting with officials from the Nuclear Regulation Authority in Japan admitted that the ice wall they promoted as an impermeable barrier to prevent groundwater from entering the crippled reactor buildings and mixing with highly radioactive water has failed to work as billed and is technically incapable of blocking off […]

Officials from the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan operated by Entergy have confirmed that 22 workers have been placed on paid leave after it was found that fire inspection records had been falsified. One of the duties of security officers at some nuclear power plants is to conduct routine checks to ensure that there […]

“Indian Point” is a film about the long problem-plagued Indian Point nuclear power plants that are “so, so risky—so close to New York City,” notes its director and producer Ivy Meeropol. “Times Square is 35 miles away.” The plants constitute a disaster waiting to happen threatening especially the lives of the 22 million people who […]

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) admitted last week that they should have declared a meltdown within days of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, instead of delaying the public announcement for months. “We apologize for the great inconvenience and worry the delay caused”, a representative for TEPCO […]

Author’s note: I wrote this blog post with knowledge of the ongoing tritium leaks plaguing a number of nuclear power reactors in the U.S., but before the latest high levels of tritium released from the Indian Point reactor in New York were reported. These recent unplanned and largely unaccounted for releases bring into stark relief […]

The Columbia Generating Station, the only commercial nuclear reactor in the state of Washington, has agreed to hire an independent investigator to look into whistleblower allegations that the plant has ignored operational and safety problems in order to keep the nuclear power plant online. An anonymous letter was sent to the local media and board […]

Many people know of my interest in the release of information through the Freedom of Information Act by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In October 2014, I participated in a meeting with Dave Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists, Lawrence Criscione (who works for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but was participating in the meeting as a […]

Residents of Fukui Prefecture in Japan have announced that they will file a lawsuit with the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) to permanently shutdown the Monju fast breeder reactor. A breeder reactor generates more fuel than it consumes. The Monju reactor was not only supposed to process the nuclear waste generated at the operating nuclear reactors, […]

Kyushu Electric reported this week that it will restart the Unit 2 reactor at the Sendai nuclear power plant in Japan on Thursday. The Unit 2 reactor was taken offline in September 2011 and has remained shutdown for the last four years. The reactors at the Sendai nuclear power plant were the first two to pass […]

Updated October 13th, 2015: Entergy has announced that the Pilgrim nuclear power station will close down no later than June 2019. Officials of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant have publicly announced that the financial costs stemming from mandated safety improvements and reforms required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission may prove too costly to keep the […]

The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) typically begins its narrative on the “lessons learned” from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe with Japan’s March 11, 2011accident. Not surprisingly, the agency has avoided addressing the most critical lesson recognized in the accident’s official investigative report by Japan’s National Diet. In their finding, the unfolding radiological catastrophe […]

Two Sig Sauer 9 millimeter weapons were stolen from the armory at the LaSalle nuclear power plant located 65 miles southwest of the City of Chicago. Exelon, the licensee who operates the nuclear facility, claims that the security of the site was not breached during the theft, which may imply that the person who stole […]

During a random fitness for duty test last week, a reactor operator at the LaSalle nuclear power plant in Illinois tested positive for alcohol. The licensee terminated the employees access to the facility. Source: NRC Event Notifications

The Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan (NRA) announced on Thursday that two ABWR reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have been placed on a priority list for safety screening. This is one of the first steps required to restart the nuclear reactors. Despite the announcement by […]

On Wednesday, a licensed reactor operator at the McGuire nuclear power station in North Carolina was found to be in violation of the site fitness-for-duty policy. The licensee revoked the operator’s access to the facility and notified the NRC Resident Inspector.

In 1976, Robert Pollard, a rarity among U.S. government nuclear officials—honest and safety-committed—said of the Indian Point nuclear power station that it was “an accident waiting to happen.” Pollard had been project manager at Indian Point for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from which he resigned at that time charging the NRC “suppresses the […]

Charles Harvey Eccleston, a 62-year-old former employee of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Department of Energy (DOE) currently living in the Philippines, was the subject of an undercover investigation by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after a cyber attack was used to attempt to steal files from the Department of Energy. […]

On Tuesday a supervisor at the Watts Bar nuclear power plant in Tennessee failed a random fitness for duty test after confirming positive for alcohol. The licensee terminated the employee’s access to the site. Source: NRC Event Notifications